Robotic cart pulling vehicle

ABSTRACT

A robotic cart pulling vehicle includes a positioning error reducing system for reducing accumulated error in the ded-reckoning navigational system. The positioning error reducing system including at least one of a low load transfer point of the cart attaching mechanism, a floor variation compliance structure whereby the drive wheels maintain a substantially even distribution of load over minor surface variations, a minimal wheel contact surface structure, a calibration structure using at least one proximity sensor mounted on the robot body, and a common electrical and mechanical connection between the cart and the robot vehicle formed by a cart attaching post.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/651,497, filed Aug. 29, 2003 which is incorporated herein as setforth in its entirety, which in turn claims the benefit of pendingprovisional application Ser. No. 60/407,117 filed Aug. 30, 2002 entitled“Robotic Cart Pulling Vehicle” which is incorporated herein by referencein its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to robotic cart pulling vehicles forautomated hauling of materials indoors. More specifically, the presentinvention relates to a cart pulling deduced reckoning guided mobilerobot system.

2. Background of the Invention

Robotic and automated vehicles for delivering or transporting materialindoors have been developed and utilized in a number of applications.One well-known application is the automated mail delivery vehicles androbots. An example of such a mail delivery vehicle is manufactured bythe Mailmobile division of Bell and Howell. Rather than being anindependent robotic vehicle, this is an automatic guided vehiclefollowing a prepared track, such as a painted ultraviolet trackpositioned on the floor. Another example is produced by FMC whichmanufactures an automated transport and logistics integration system,referred to as ATLIS, for moving specially designed carts in indoorenvironments, such as hospitals. To pick up a cart, the ATLIS vehiclepositions itself under the cart, the deck of the vehicle is equippedwith an electric lift which extends to raise the cart from the floor.The ATLIS system is generally a wire-guided system requiring a guidewire to be permanently installed in the floor.

In the hospital environment, a company referred to as Helpmate Roboticsdeveloped a robotic courier for hospitals. The robotic courier wasessentially a wheeled cabinet. This hospital robotic courier iscurrently being offered by the Pyxis division of Cardinal Heath, Inc.The robotic courier has many disadvantages, the first of which is thatit is overly expensive, and a second is that it is only useful fortransporting materials that can fit in the associated cabinet installedwith the robot.

A wide variety of prior art robotic and automated vehicles are discussedin the patent literature. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,746,977 to Whiteis directed to a remotely operated steerable vehicle. U.S. Pat. No.4,871,172 to Kanayama is directed toward a mobile robot and a controltherefore. U.S. Pat. No. 5,488,277 to Nishikawa et al. discloses acollection of mobile robots and a control station for the plurality ofmobile robots. U.S. Pat. No. 5,175,480 to McKeefery et al. is directedtoward an automated guided vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 5,461,292 Zondlodiscloses a remote controlled two-wheeled lawn mowing vehicle. U.S. Pat.No. 5,545,960 to Ishikawa is directed toward a mobile machine followinga predetermined path. U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,863 to Zollinger et al. isdirected toward a robotic vehicle including a support structure. U.S.Pat. No. 5,709,007 to Chiang discloses a remote control vacuum having aremote control drive unit or cart to which a portable vacuum unit isremovable attached.

Further the patent literature discussed a wide variety of navigational,error control, and obstacle detection systems such as discussed in thefollowing patents that are incorporated herein by reference.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,276,618 to Everett, Jr. is directed toward a doorwaytransit navigational referencing system for a robot vehicle. This systemutilizes a plurality of sensors for sensing known reference objects toobtain orientation information.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,324,948 to Dudar et al. discloses a robot following apredetermined path and uses the collection of a series of distinct datapoints between the sensor and a wall in order to recognize the object asa wall. Additionally, the patent discloses that if a door or other wallfeature is found, the robot will ignore the new data points and useded-reckoning until a valid “wall” is found.

U.S. Fat. No. 5,402,344 to Reister et al. is directed toward a methodfor independently controlling steerable drive wheels of the vehicle withtwo or more such wheels. The system provides a method for determiningthe wheel slip associated with a given wheel.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,548,511 to Bancroft discloses a robotic cleaningapparatus in which the robot measures and records the distances to theleft and right boundaries as it travels to determine or map the area.Subsequent to mapping the area, it will determine the path for cleaningthe area with the robot following a predetermined path in such cleaning.The Bancroft patent does disclose that encoders provide ded-reckoningnavigation while the sensors provide corrections to errors caused by,for example, slippage of the wheels. The precise correction methodutilized is not discussed. Additionally disclosed is that the sensorscan be advantageously used to follow variations in the boundary of thearea that deviate from dimensions measured in the learning phase and toavoid obstacles in the area. The Bancroft patent additionally discussesdealing with areas or variations by using the mode of the measurementsobtained by the sensors, that is the value of the measurement thatoccurs most often. Additionally, the robot ignores measurements that aregreater than a maximum range of the sensor.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,556,356 to Kim discloses a mobile robot incorporating aposition correcting system. Included in the system is a distancedetecting mechanism or sensor detecting the distance of separationbetween the robot and a separate positioning correcting mechanismpositioned within a wall. The position correcting mechanism in the wallcan include an infrared receiving unit and a transmitting unit which isselectively activated by the robot as is passes to send appropriatecontrol compensating signals to the robot.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,559,696 to Borenstein discloses a mobile robot with aninternal positioning error correction system utilized for correctingnon-systematic deduced reckoning errors and discloses a robot with atrailer hitch connected to the center of the robot.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,652,489 to Kawakami is directed toward a mobile robotcontrol system wherein the robots move on a predetermined route in agiven area including optical detection sensors.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,306 to Shin et al. discloses a robotic vehicleprimarily utilizing global positioning systems (GPS). The patentadditionally discloses the use of deduced reckoning to supplement theGPS system.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,684,696 to Rao et al. discloses a system and method forenabling an autonomous vehicle to follow a desired path. The systemutilizes a combination of a GPS and an initial reference unit (IRU)integrated together.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,294 to Jeong is directed toward a control system fora mobile robot including obstacle detection and correction ofpositioning and directional errors.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,739,657 to Takayama et al. is directed toward a controlsystem for controlling the motion of an omni-directional roboticvehicle.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,008 to Asama et al. is directed toward a mobilerobot sensor system for a system of multiple robots in a givenenvironment. The robots utilize infrared sensors for communicating withother robots for avoiding other roots in the environment.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,942,869 to Katou et al. discloses an automated roboticvehicle utilizing caterpillar treads. Additionally disclosed is the useof supersonic or ultrasonic sensors for obstacle detection.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,041,274 to Onishi et al. is directed toward a positionaldeviation detecting device for a robot or working machine which utilizesa pick-up sensor for detecting the image on a floor.

The above discussed prior art does not effectively provide for a cartpulling or cart pulling robotic vehicle that would be useful for haulingmaterials on a variety of carts or wagons indoors. A cart pullingded-reckoning guided robotic vehicle is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No.6,046,565 (hereinafter “the '565 patent”) that is also incorporatedherein by reference. The '565 patent discloses a robotic vehicle with adeduced reckoning positioning system having a center mounted harness, orattachment mechanism, on the robot body for coupling a cart or wagon tobe pulled thereby. The '565 patent teaches that the system calibratesthe absolute position of the robotic vehicle relative to a fixedreference marker, such as a wall, to eliminate the accumulated error inthe calculated position of the robotic vehicle. Additionally, the '565patent discloses that a single reference wall may be used to eliminatethe error in selected two parameters. With regard to the attachmentmechanism or harness, the '565 patent suggests that the ratio of theheight of the harness joint above the floor to the axle width should beas low as possible to better approximate the ideal planar situation. The'565 patent does not discuss the attachment mechanism further.

All of the above-discussed prior art has substantial disadvantages. Itis the object of the present invention to improve upon the prior art andprovide a cart or wagon pulling deduced reckoning guide mobile robotsystem useful for industrial applications, such as in hospitals andlike. In this regard, the present application can be considered animprovement over some of the fundamental concepts disclosed in the '565patent.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The objects of the present invention are achieved with a robotic cartpulling vehicle including a positioning error reducing system forreducing accumulated error in the ded-reckoning navigational systemaccording to the present invention. The positioning error reducingsystem includes at least one of a low load transfer point of the cartattaching mechanism, a floor variation compliance structure whereby thedrive wheels maintain a substantially even distribution of load overminor surface variations, a minimal wheel contact surface structure, acalibration structure using at least one proximity sensor mounted on therobot body, and an electrical and mechanical connection between the cartand the robotic vehicle formed with a cart attaching post

Several of the improvements of the current invention forming thepositioning error reducing system relate to the connection between therobot and the cart being pulled. Specifically, the mechanical connectionbetween the cart and robot body is provided with a low force transferpoint for reducing the deduced reckoning error. The force transfer pointis preferably as low as possible, at least below the wheel axle.Mathematical descriptions for the low attachment location is having aheight to base ratio of less than ⅕, or even less than 1/10, whereinheight is the height of the attachment point above the surface definedby the bottom of the driven wheels and the base is the distance betweenthe driven wheels along the wheel axle. A second improvement in themechanical connection is the provision of a freedom of motion about thetravel axle, also referred to as a floor variation compliance structure.A compliance of about 3 degrees or so between the robot and the cartattaching post allows one wheel to be vertically moved a certaindistance while still maintaining an even distribution of force betweenthe wheels. This allows the robot to compensate for uneven floors,doorjambs and other features without adversely affecting the deducedreckoning position control. A further feature of the mechanicalconnection is the use of the cart attaching post as both the mechanicalconnection as an electrical connection point between the robotic vehicleand the wagon or cart being pulled. The electrical connection allowsinformation to pass back and forth between the processors in each deviceas well as allowing power to pass back and forth between either device.This will allow the battery for driving the robot to be located in thecart as opposed to in the robot body. The mechanical connection,finally, may include some compliance in the upper portion thereof, toassure that the mechanical transfer of force is at the lower portion forthe reasons discussed above.

Another aspect of the positioning error reducing system for reducingaccumulated error in the ded-reckoning navigational system according tothe present invention is the calibration system for zeroing out deducedreckoning error using proximity sensors mounted on the vehicle body. Thecalibration system of the present invention places checkpoints alongwalls that have straight sections longer than a predetermined amount,such as two feet. The present system will place as many of thesecheckpoints as possible along any vertical structure meeting the minimumlimitation requirement that is found in the robot's known world. Inoperation, when the robot is traveling parallel to a wall with acheckpoint, a conventional infrared proximity sensor is utilized tomeasure a series of distances to the wall. This generates a series ofdata points relative to the checkpoints and a statistical method is usedto determine if the data meets the criteria for the wall. If this seriesof updated positions meets reasonable expectation, the data is utilizedto update the robot position and, more importantly, the robotorientation.

A further modification in the robotic vehicle forming the positioningerror reducing system for reducing accumulated error in theded-reckoning navigational system is the wheel design for improved dedreckoning accuracy. The present wheel design is created to keep thevariation in the wheel radius and the width between the wheels under 2%,or even 0.5%. The wheel design of the present invention is intended tominimize the contact patch width provided by the wheel as well asminimize the variation in the compression of the wheel relative to loadon the vehicle. To accomplish this, the wheel is provided with a solidstiff circular core provided with an outer annular coating providing thetire tread. In cross-section, the tread may converge to an annularcontact area of minimum width, other minimal width annular contact areasare also possible.

These and other advantages of the present invention will be clarified inthe detailed description of the preferred embodiment taken together withthe attached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective schematic view of a robotic cart pulling vehicleaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective schematic view, partially broken away, of therobotic vehicle illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective schematic view of the robotic vehicle of FIG. 1attached to and pulling a cart;

FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view of the robotic vehicle and cartof FIG. 3 illustrating the forces on the vehicle and cart;

FIG. 5 is a plan view of a wheel of the robotic vehicle of the presentinvention;

FIG. 6 a is a schematic cross-sectional view of the wheel of FIG. 5 andFIG. 6 b is an enlarged cross sectional view of a modified wheel hub;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view illustrating a floor variation compliancestructure of the robotic vehicle of FIG. 1;

FIG. 8 a is a schematic sectional side view of an electromechanicalconnection between the robotic vehicle and cart of the present inventionand FIG. 8 b is a schematic sectional side view of a modifiedelectromechanical connection;

FIG. 9 a is a front side view of the cart attaching connectionillustrated in FIG. 8 a and FIG. 9 b is a front view of a modifiedconnection of FIG. 8 b;

FIG. 10 is a top view of the harness connection shown in FIG. 8 a; and

FIG. 11 is a plan view of a range sensor utilized in the correction ofded-reckoning error.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The robotic vehicle 10 or robot of the present invention is shown inFIGS. 1 and 2. The robotic vehicle 10 is essentially a chassis or body12 with two co-axial driven wheels 14. The body 12 houses the circuitboard or computer controller 16 for the vehicle 10. A battery pack 18 isalso on the body 12 although the robotic vehicle 10 could also bepowered through a battery on an attached cart or cart 20 being pulled bythe robotic vehicle 10. A cart attachment mechanism 24 is centered onthe body 12 midway between the wheels 14 essentially along and above theaxels of the wheels 14. A housing 26 covers the body 12 and includes acollection of sensors 27 and 28 which are used for obstacle detectionand correction of positioning and orientation error. Specifically, rangesensors 27 are used for correction of positioning and orientation erroras described below and sonar sensors 28 are used for obstacle detectionas generally known in the art. The robotic vehicle 10 can have a varietyof further features well known in the industry, such as audible outputsto announce its proximity. The present application is only focused onthe unique aspects of the present robotic vehicle 10 not readily knownto those in the art. Specifically the present application is focused ona robotic cart pulling vehicle 10 including a positioning error reducingsystem for reducing accumulated error in the ded-reckoning navigationalsystem. The positioning error reducing system includes at least one of alow load transfer point of the cart attaching mechanism 24, a floorvariation compliance structure whereby the drive wheels 14 maintain asubstantially even distribution of load over minor surface variations, aminimal wheel contact surface structure, a calibration structure usingat least one proximity sensor mounted on the robot body 12, and anelectrical and mechanical connection between the cart and the roboticvehicle formed with a cart attaching post positioned at a midpoint ofthe wheel base.

A first aspect of the positioning error reducing system of the presentinvention relates to the use of the range sensors 27 and associatedcheckpoints in a calibration system to correct and eliminateded-reckoning error. The most critical task for any mobile roboticvehicle is to know where it is with respect to some map (i.e. it's worldmap). Without this information the robotic vehicle can't calculate howto get anywhere. The robotic vehicle would not even know which way it'sfacing so it can't even start trying to travel to its destination.Obviously, if the robotic vehicle can't get where the operator wants itto go it can't perform much useful work. This is the main thrust ofmobile robotics and it has been called the “navigation riddle.”

The ultimate goal in addressing this issue may be some external systemthat keeps track of where the robotic vehicle is and which way it'sfacing and keeps the robotic vehicle informed. GPS is close to thisgoal, but it doesn't tell the robotic vehicle which way it's facing, itonly works outside, and it isn't accurate enough to guide a roboticvehicle through a doorway. In lieu of this ideal system, some robotsinstead guess where they are from the amount they've turned each wheel.It's called ded-reckoning. This method is inherently flawed; thereforemany robotic vehicles using deduced reckoning then correct any errorthat accumulates with any of a wide variety of sensor methods.

Most research effort is focused on the sensors for correcting theded-reckoning error. One advance in the field with the present inventionis to instead focus on the cause of the errors and the minimizationand/or elimination of them. The present methods employed in the instantinvention reduce ded-reckoning error from a typical 7% found in priorart robotic robots using deduced reckoning to less than 1% in thepresent invention.

Lateral accuracy in the known robotic vehicle position is hard toachieve because it depends on accurate knowledge of the heading of therobotic vehicle. If the robotic vehicle heading is just 6 degrees off(i.e. 6 degrees difference between the actual heading and the estimatedheading assumed by the vehicle), traveling 10 feet forward will resultin a lateral error of 1 foot. The robotic vehicle is 1 foot away fromwhere it believes that it is, with the errors continuing to compounduntil corrected. The key to the effectiveness of any ded-reckoningsystem is maintaining the heading information as accurately as possible.Typical robot systems accumulate 10 to 16 degrees of heading error inexecuting a 180 degree rotation; the present robotic vehicle generatesonly 2.5 degrees of error executing a 180 degree rotation.

As discussed above, ded-reckoning systems accumulate error no matter howwell they are designed and the present system still accumulates somesmall amount of error. The present invention incorporates a system forzeroing out accumulated error that utilize pre established checkpointsand may be referred to as light whisker.TM. checkpoints. A map of theworld is held internally by the robotic vehicle 10 as understood bythose in the art. On this map, virtual light whisker.TM. checkpoints”(LWC) are positioned along walls that have straight sections longer thana predetermined minimum amount, such as 2 feet. As many LWC's as can fitare placed along any wall that meets the minimum (e.g. 2′) straightsection requirement. When the robotic vehicle 10 is traveling parallelto a wall with a LWC, a conventional range sensor 27, such as a SharpGP2D12 infrared sensor, is used to look sideways at the wall and measurea series of distances to the wall. FIG. 11 illustrates the Sharp GP2D12sensor 27 which is described as providing less influence on the color ofreflected objects, reflectivity. With the sensor 27, an external controlcircuit is unnecessary and the sensor 27 is very low cost. The GP2D12Oinfrared sensor 27 has special lenses and takes a continuous distancereading and reports the distance as an analog voltage with a distancerange of 4 cm to 30 cm. The interface is 3-wire with power, ground andthe output voltage and requires a JST 3-pin connector 29 that is shownin FIG. 11.

The measurements from the sensor 27 are provided to the controller 16times a second as the robotic vehicle 10 travels. The sensor 27 reportsthe distance as an analog signal accurate to ⅕″ and this is utilizedcombined with the known geometry of the sensor 27 on the robotic vehicle10 to determine a sequence of positions relative to the robot basedcoordinate system where this wall should be. Using this set ofpositions, a statistical method (to eliminate anomalous readings) may beused to determine if the data meets the criterion for a wall (e.g. “thissection should be straight”). Then the following is determined: 1) thedistance over to the wall and 2) the orientation of the wall. Thisorientation is compared to the expected orientation of the wall knowingwhere the robotic vehicle 10 believes it is with respect to its internalmap. If the calculated position of the wall appears to be radicallydifferent from the previous expected position it is assumed ameasurement error occurred and the data can be rejected. The value ofwhat is “radically different” can be selected as known in the art. Ifthe correction is within reason, it is assumed that the sensor data isright and the robotic vehicle's ded-reckoning based assumption about theposition is not, and the new orientation is used to update theassumption about the vehicle position and orientation within the map(i.e. the robot's assumed orientation is calibrated). An additionalfeature may be added where the vehicle 10 also “looks” at the ending orstart of the wall to determine the other offset, (e.g. theforward/backward position). Again, the robotic vehicle 10 will do thisas often as possible, sometimes every ten feet. This method may bemodified to be used on non-linear continuous surfaces as well. Forexample, the checkpoints may be positioned on a wall having a knownradius of curvature. Additionally, it is important to note that thecheckpoints represent positions on a given wall, but no physicalmodification of the existing wall is required for utilizing the presentinvention. In this respect the checkpoints may be considered to bevirtual checkpoints.

A key feature is the fact that the robotic vehicle 10 is mainlymeasuring orientation error and the fact that there are discretemeasuring places or “checkpoints” that are “set up” then usedcomparatively. The use of a range sensor 27 is very effective forpicking up orientation error with relatively little a sensor investment.

The use of an electrical connection through the mechanical connection ofthe cart attaching mechanism 24 between cart 20 and robot or roboticvehicle 10 is another key feature of the positioning error reducingsystem for reducing accumulated error in the ded-reckoning navigationalsystem according to the present invention. This connection allows forthe passage of both information and power between the cart 20 and therobot 10 as well as the transferring of the mechanical forces for towingof the cart 20.

The robot 10 needs both a mechanical connection to the cart 20 that itis pulling and an electrical connection if the cart 20 is to include anyinput or output devices associated with the robot 10. These can includedirectional controls (e.g. a joystick controller for movement) forcontrolling movement of the robot 10, sensors for assisting in detectingobstacles or position, emergency override (e.g. a stop button), astandard computer of touch screen interface, audible or visualindicators (e.g. light and sound systems), supplemental battery powerfor the robot 10, or the like. The electrical connection has twopurposes, one to pass information back and forth between processors ineach device, and the other to pass power in the case where the batteryfor driving the robot motors 30 is located in the cart 20 not the robot10. For this purpose the present invention provides a novel connectorthat takes advantage of the mechanical loads to create excellentelectrical current carrying capacity all through the same device.

Essentially, there are two loads exerted on the robot 10 by the cart 20,one is downward where the robot 10 is holding up at least half of thecart 20, and the other is lateral, the one that actually pulls the cart20 along. The downward load on the robot 10 is supported by oneelectrical connection and the lateral is supported by the returnelectrical connection. In this way, the invention can pass up to 20 ampsof current through the connection while maintaining strong enoughsurface contact to avoid any arcing that would eventually wear thematerials out. This method has the benefit of not only maintaining greatcontact but it also keeps the two electrical poles mechanically isolatedfrom each other because they are in different planes. Standard ringapproaches always have potential shorting problems during insertion andremoval of the post into the connector while this method eliminates thisproblem. The details of this arrangement are found in FIGS. 8 a, 9 a and10. One electrical connection between the cart 20 and the robot 10 ismade between a bolt 42 at the end of wagon or cart attaching post 44 andthe receiving metal support 46 on the robot 10 in a bore within therobot body and housing. The weight of the cart 20 that is carried by therobot 10 maintains this connection. This weight should be at least halfof the weight of the cart 20, since increased weight on the robot 10reduces accumulating positioning error due to a reduction in wheelslippage. The second electrical connection is between the steel tube 48of the post and a brass bushing 50 in the robot 10. The tight fitbetween the tube 48 and the bushing 50 and the forces exerted throughpulling of the cart 20 maintain this electrical connection. FIGS. 8 band 9 b illustrate an alternative construction of the post 44 whichstill provides for both a mechanical and an electrical connectionbetween the robotic vehicle 10 and the cart 20. This embodiment willavoid problems than can be encountered with a mechanical connectionbetween the bolt 42 and the metal support 46 due to high loading.Specifically the post 44 includes a thrust bearing 142 at the end of thetube 48 in the bushing 50 which serves as the load transfer pointbetween the cart 20 and the robot vehicle 10. A bearing sleeve 144 is inthe bushing 50 between the tube 48 and the bushing 50 to allow freerotation of between the robot vehicle 10 and the cart 20 (and the cartattaching post 44 which is secured thereto through the post connectorflange 145). Three copper rings 146 are surrounding the tube 48,insulated from each other and the tube 48. A brush contact 148 is biasedinto contact with a selected copper ring 144 by a steel spring support150 attached to the body 12 through an upper or lower post supportmember 152 and 154 respectively. The upper and lower post support 152and 154 may be considered to define a bore in the body 12 for the post44. Another brush contact 148 may be biased against the tube 48 toprovide a ground contact. The copper rings 148 and the brush contactswhich engage them form a slip ring type electrical connection forelectrically coupling the robotic vehicle 20 with the cart 20 (wiresfrom the brush contacts to the controller 16 and from the cart 20through the tube 48 to the rings 146 are not shown). Additional copperring 148 and brush contacts 148 may be added if additional electricalconnections are desired. The use of the central post 44 will avoid thepositioning errors that can be introduced with a separate electrical andmechanical connection. For example a separate electrical cord betweenthe cart 20 and the robot 10 may wrap around a mechanical connection asthe robot turns relative to the cart 20 eventually restricting furtherrotational movement there between and creating large positional errors.

Another key feature of the positioning error reducing system forreducing accumulated error in the ded-reckoning navigational systemaccording to the present invention is the use of themechanical/electrical connection between cart 20 and robot 10 that isrigid front to back but allows a certain amount side to side rotation,such as three degrees, forming a floor variation compliance structure.In this regard the connection 24 above the bushing 50 will be an ellipseor elongated along the vehicle wheel axis such as in the upper postsupport 152. The ellipse or elongation is along the wheel axles. Thiscompliance is shown in FIG. 7 through the tilting of the post 44relative to the robot 10, whereby each drive wheel 14 is mounted to saidrobot body 12 in a manner allowing vertical movement of said wheel 14relative to the cart attaching post 44 in the amount of at least threedegrees measured from a center point of the collinear drive wheel axles.In this manner the collinear drive wheels 14 maintain a substantiallyeven distribution of load over minor surface variations.

There is always some amount of slippage occurring between the wheels 14and the floor. The present robot 10 is of the two wheeledcounter-rotating type and any heading change is calculated by knowinghow much more one wheel 14 has turned than another. Slippage isdifficult to measure. If the robot 10 could measure it, then it couldcalculate the impact on the heading by knowing how much more one wheel14 has slipped than the other, which is described in some of the priorart patents.

The present strategy is to instead try to keep the slippage minimal andequal between the wheels 14 by using the following methods:

a) to minimize the slippage on smooth surface floors the robot 10 usesurethane coating 54 (such as on in line skate wheels) on the wheels 14which has an incredibly large coefficient of friction while also beingextremely durable;

b) the wagon or cart 20 is attached to the robot 10 in the centerbetween the wheels 14 through a near frictionless bearing (i.e. the post44 can rotate in the attaching mechanism 24) which keeps the lateralforces equal between the wheels 14;

c) the wagon or cart 20 is attached to the robot 10 (i.e. the cartloading forces are transferred) as low as possible to maintain the cartload as low as possible on the robot 10 (the forces being transferredthrough the bushing 50) which has the effect of keeping the downwardforces as even as possible because the wagon or cart 20 isn't attemptingto tip the robot 10 over as it is pulled around corners (this isbelieved to be the source of the greatest orientation erroraccumulation);

d) the robot 10 is designed to put as much of the weight of its cargo(the wagon or cart 20) over the robot 10 as possible;

e) finally the robot 10 is designed to reduce the rolling resistance andkeeping the accelerations low.

As discussed above, the swivel or cart attaching mechanism 24 for therobot 10 has compliance of plus and minus three degrees about a vectorpointing in the forward travel direction of the robot 10. In other wordsthe post 44 can pivot in a plane defined by the wheel 14 axles. Thiscompliance allows the robot 10 to have one wheel 14 a half inch higherthan the other wheel 14 while still distributing the loads nearly evenlybetween them. This compensates for unevenness of the floor, which in aperfectly stiff connection (i.e. no compliance) could shift all the loadto a single wheel 10 like a car with three wheels on the curb and thefourth hanging off over the curb. This is especially critical innavigating over door jambs which can be a half inch high where the robot10 could cross them at a diagonal essentially leaving one wheel 14completely off the floor without this feature. This side to side swivelis a key feature of the present invention, and the lack of which causesother robots to not work. There are two reasons: 1) floors not beingperfectly level (in fact, it has been observed that variations of 20″side to side often exist when traveling straight forward 15 feet); and2) when turning, the centripetal force of the robot and cart places moreload on the outside wheel than the inside wheel if this swivel is notpresent and this would cause significant error. The only way this issolved is putting the attachment low (i.e. the position of the loadtransferring bushing 50) and with swivel about a forward pointing axis.Otherwise, there are times when all the weight would be on one wheel 14and the creep that occurs between the floor and the tread would bedrastically uneven causing large errors.

Additionally, to keep the slip equal between the wheels 14 the inventionessentially uses a strategy of keeping the forces equal between them.Slippage is proportional to lateral forces (forces in the plane of thefloor Fl) and inversely proportional to the downward force (Fd) the goodforce which maintains the friction between the wheel. There is also arandom slippage caused by things like dirt on the floor that we call F(random noise) and over which there is no control.Slippage=K(Fl/Fdx).times.(F(random noise))

To minimize the slippage the robot 10 is designed to increase Fd as muchas possible by putting as much of the weight of its cargo over the robot10 as practical. The robot 10 design also tries to minimize Fl byreducing the rolling resistance and keeping the accelerations low. Thetrickier part is that the design of the robot 10 also tries to keep Fland Fd as close to the same on each the left and right wheel 14 aspossible so that on average (not constantly because there is still therandom element which is inconsistent between the wheels 14) but onaverage, the slip that does occur is the same on both wheels 14 so thatalthough there is some positional error generated, the heading erroraccumulation is minimal. The robot 10 design does this by not onlyattaching the cart 20 in the center between the wheels 14 through a nearfrictionless bearing 144 which keeps the lateral forces equal betweenthe wheels 10 but the invention also attaches the cart load as low aspossible on the robot 10 which has the effect of keeping the downwardforces as even as possible because the cart 20 isn't attempting to tipthe robot 10 over as it is pulled around corners, the source of thegreatest orientation error accumulation. The load transfer point betweenthe post and the robot 10 (i.e. the bushing 50) is below the wheel axle.More significantly the height of the load transfer point is less than ⅕and preferably less than 1/10 of the wheel base.

The robotic vehicle 10 of the present invention provides a number ofunique designs for the wheels 14 as shown in FIGS. 5, 6 a and 6 b.Regarding the wheel design, the sticky urethane, or polyurethane,coating tread being provided as thin as possible over the hardenedannular disk 60 will minimize the wheel radius variation. The radiusvariation of the wheel 14 is due to compression of the urethane coating.In the present invention the thin coating of urethane is selected suchthat the compression of the wheels 14 under load (i.e. the change inradius of the wheel due to compression of the urethane coating) is lessthan 2% of the wheel radius, and preferably less than 1% of the wheelradius. The load referred to is more precisely the change in loadbetween a robot and attached unloaded cart and the robot and attachedloaded cart. The robot 10 and attached unloaded cart 20 are considered abase line, or unloaded, state for the wheels 14. This is in contrast toprior art dirigible wheels that compress, in operation, to a largefraction of the wheel radius, resulting in significant deduced reckoningerror. Additionally, the annular wheel contact patch is provided asnarrow as possible, on the order of 0.20 in, to keep the effective widthbetween the wheels 14 as constant as possible. A large contact patch forthe wheels will result in a variation of the effective wheel base. Inthe present invention the width of the contact patch of each wheel 14 isless than 1.5%, and preferably less than 1% of the wheel base betweenthe wheels. The narrow wheels allow the variations in the effectivewheel base to remain relatively small, specifically the change in thewheel base of the robot 10 will be less than 2%, possibly even less than0.5%. These wheel design features minimize deduced reckoning error asdiscussed above. Additionally, the system of the present invention isdesigned to provide the cargo weight mainly over the robot 10 tomaximize traction and minimize wheel slippage, minimizing wheel error.Furthermore, the attachment of the cart load as low as possible willkeep the downward force as even as possible so that the cart is notattempting to tip the robot over as being pulled around corners, asdiscussed above. All of these design considerations improve the deducedreckoning of the present invention.

The robotic vehicle 10 of the present invention provides an automatic,labor-saving indoor freight hauler that is capable of hauling up to 500pounds of goods on a cart 20 and can fit into a suitcase. The roboticvehicle 10 is generally the size of a suit box, about 20 inches wide and8 inches tall. The vehicle 10 can effectively be described as a circuitboard on wheels 14 mounted on a metal chassis or body 12 with a set ofbatteries 18, a PC mother board and with attached sensors 27, 28. Thedescribed vehicle 10 can perform rounds stopping at a series of stationsor can do fetch and deliver errands and can haul a variety of carts 20to the appropriate job. It is anticipated that the robotic vehicle 10will be controlled with a graphical user interface. Furthermore, thecarts 10 can be modified to include the battery as discussed above, orother interface connections such as a steerable joystick and the like.Another key feature of the present invention is the ability to easilyretrofit existing carts 20 to be utilized with the robot 10 of thepresent invention. The retrofitting of existing carts 20 would generallyonly require the addition of an appropriate post 44. Additional elementssuch as supplemental batteries, input devices such as steering joystickor a keyboard, or sensors may also be retrofitted onto the existingcarts 20.

The above described embodiments is intended to be merely illustrative ofthe present invention and not restrictive thereof. A wide number ofmodifications are anticipated within the scope of the present inventionas will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art. The scopeof the present invention is intended to be defined by the appendedclaims and equivalents thereof.

1. A robotic cart pulling vehicle comprising: at least two axiallycollinear drive wheels; a robot body mounted on said drive wheels; acontrol system on the robot body utilizing, at least in part, aded-reckoning navigational system; a cart attaching mechanism on saidrobot body for coupling a cart to said robotic vehicle; wherein theimprovement comprises a positioning error reducing system for reducingaccumulated error in the ded-reckoning navigational system, saidpositioning error reducing system including at least one of i) a loadtransfer point of the cart attaching mechanism positioned at a heightfrom the ground that is below a height that is selected from at leastone of (a) approximately ⅕ of the wheel base of said drive wheels, and(b) a height of the axles of the drive wheels; ii) a floor variationcompliance structure, wherein the cart attaching mechanism includes acart attaching bore in the robot body and a cart attaching post withinthe cart attaching bore, wherein each said drive wheel is mounted tosaid robot body in a manner allowing vertical movement of said wheelrelative to the cart attaching post in the amount of at least threedegrees measured from a center point of the collinear drive wheel axles,whereby said collinear drive wheels maintain a substantially evendistribution of load over minor surface variations; iii) minimal wheelcontact surface structure, wherein each said drive wheel includes anannular contact surface formed as a coating over a solid, stiff core andincludes at least one of (a) under load, compression of the wheel isless than 2% of the wheel radius, (b) the width of the annular contactsurface is less than 1.5% of the wheelbase, (c) the width of the annularcontact patch is on the order of 0.20″, and (d) the variation of thewheel base in operation is less than 2%; iv) calibration structure,wherein at least one proximity sensor mounted on the robot body, saidcontrol system coupled to said at least one proximity sensor foradjusting the calculated robotic position, wherein the control systemsets up virtual checkpoints along known fixed features of apredetermined length, takes a statistically significant number ofproximity readings along an adjacent fixed feature, removesstatistically anomalous readings and automatically adjusts the roboticposition based upon statistically significant readings; and v) both anelectrical and mechanical connection between the cart and the roboticvehicle formed with a cart attaching post positioned at a midpoint ofthe wheel base, wherein the cart attaching post is part of the cartattaching mechanism.
 2. The robotic cart pulling vehicle of claim 1wherein the positioning error reducing system includes the calibrationsystem having at least one proximity sensor mounted on the robot body,said control system coupled to said at least one proximity sensor foradjusting the calculated robotic position, wherein the control systemsets up virtual checkpoints along known fixed features of apredetermined length, takes a statistically significant number ofproximity readings along an adjacent fixed feature, removesstatistically anomalous readings and automatically adjusts the roboticposition based upon statistically significant readings.
 3. The roboticcart pulling vehicle of claim 2 wherein each said proximity sensor is aninfrared range sensor.
 4. The robotic cart pulling vehicle of claim 2wherein at least one fixed feature is a straight wall section of atleast 2′ in length.
 5. The robotic cart pulling vehicle of claim 2wherein each said fixed feature is a straight wall section of at leastthe predetermined length.
 6. The robotic cart pulling vehicle of claim 2wherein said statistically significant number of proximity readingstaken along an adjacent fixed feature are obtained by the control systemat about 16 times a second as the robotic vehicle moves along theadjacent fixed feature.
 7. The robotic cart pulling vehicle of claim 2wherein the positioning error reducing system includes a load transferpoint of the cart attaching mechanism, that is in the form of a loadtransfer ring positioned at a height from the ground that is below aheight that is selected from at least one of (a) approximately ⅕ of thewheel base of said drive wheels, and (b) a height of the axles of thedrive wheels.
 8. The robotic cart pulling vehicle of claim 7 wherein theload transfer ring is positioned at a height below a height that isapproximately 1/10 of the wheel base.
 9. The robotic cart pullingvehicle of claim 7 wherein the load transfer ring is positioned at aheight below the axles of the drive wheels.
 10. The robotic cart pullingvehicle of claim 7 wherein the positioning error reducing systemincludes a minimal wheel contact surface structure, wherein each saiddrive wheel includes an annular contact surface formed as a coating overa solid, stiff core and includes at least one of (a) under load,compression of the wheel is less than 2% of the wheel radius, and (b)the width of the annular contact surface is less than 1.5% of thewheelbase.
 11. The robotic cart pulling vehicle of claim 10 wherein thepositioning error reducing system includes a minimal wheel contactsurface structure, wherein each said drive wheel includes an annularcontact surface formed as a coating over a solid, stiff core andincludes at least one of (a) under load, compression of the wheel isless than 1.0% of the wheel radius, and (b) the width of the annularcontact surface is less than 1.0% of the wheelbase.
 12. The robotic cartpulling vehicle of claim 10 wherein the positioning error reducingsystem includes a floor variation compliance structure, wherein the cartattaching mechanism includes a cart attaching bore in the robot body anda cart attaching post within the cart attaching bore, wherein each saiddrive wheel is mounted to said robot body in a manner allowing verticalmovement of said wheel relative to the cart attaching post in the amountof at least three degrees measured from a center point of the collineardrive wheel axles, whereby said collinear drive wheels maintain asubstantially even distribution of load over minor surface variations.13. The robotic cart pulling vehicle of claim 2 wherein the positioningerror reducing system includes a minimal wheel contact surfacestructure, wherein each said drive wheel includes an annular contactsurface formed as a coating over a solid, stiff core and includes atleast one of (a) under load, compression of the wheel is less 1.0% ofthe wheel radius, and (b) the width of the annular contact surface isless than 1.0% of the wheelbase.
 14. The robotic cart pulling vehicle ofclaim 2 wherein the positioning error reducing system includes a floorvariation compliance structure, wherein the cart attaching mechanismincludes a cart attaching bore in the robot body and a cart attachingpost within the cart attaching bore, wherein each said drive wheel ismounted to said robot body in a manner allowing vertical movement ofsaid wheel relative to the cart attaching post in the amount of at leastthree degrees measured from a center point of the collinear drive wheelaxles, whereby said collinear drive wheels maintain a substantially evendistribution of load over minor surface variations.
 15. The robotic cartpulling vehicle of claim 1 wherein the positioning error reducing systemincludes a minimal wheel contact surface structure, wherein each saiddrive wheel includes an annular contact surface formed as a coating overa solid, stiff core and includes at least one of (a) under load,compression of the wheel is less than 2% of the wheel radius, (b) thewidth of the annular contact surface is less than 1.5% of the wheelbase,and (c) the width of the annular contact patch is on the order of 0.20″.16. The robotic cart pulling vehicle of claim 15 wherein the positioningerror reducing system includes a floor variation compliance structure,wherein the cart attaching mechanism includes a cart attaching bore inthe robot body and a cart attaching post within the cart attaching bore,wherein each said drive wheel is mounted to said robot body in a mannerallowing vertical movement of said wheel relative to the cart attachingpost in the amount of at least three degrees measured from a centerpoint of the collinear drive wheel axles, whereby said collinear drivewheels maintain a substantially even distribution of load over minorsurface variations.
 17. The robotic cart pulling vehicle of claim 15wherein the positioning error reducing system includes a minimal wheelcontact surface structure, wherein each said drive wheel includes anannular contact surface formed as a coating over a solid, stiff core andincludes at least one of (a) under load compression of the wheel is lessthan 1.0% of the wheel radius, and (b) the width of the annular contactsurface is less than 1.0% of the wheelbase.
 18. The robotic cart pullingvehicle of claim 1 wherein the positioning error reducing systemincludes a minimal wheel contact surface structure, wherein each saiddrive wheel includes an annular contact surface formed as a coating overa solid, stiff core and includes at least one of (a) under loadcompression of the wheel is less than 1.0% of the wheel radius, and (b)the width of the annular contact surface is less than 1.0% of thewheelbase.
 19. The robotic cart pulling vehicle of claim 1 wherein thecart attaching mechanism includes a cart attaching bore in the robotbody and a cart attaching post within the cart attaching bore, whereinthe cart attaching post provides both a mechanical and an electricalconnection between the cart and the robot vehicle.
 20. The robotic cartpulling vehicle of claim 1 wherein the positioning error reducing systemincludes a floor variation compliance structure, wherein the cartattaching mechanism includes a cart attaching bore in the robot body anda cart attaching post within the cart attaching bore, wherein each saiddrive wheel is mounted to said robot body in a manner allowing verticalmovement of said wheel relative to the cart attaching pole in the amountof at least three degrees measured from a center point of the collineardrive wheel axles, whereby said collinear drive wheels maintain asubstantially even distribution of load over minor surface variations.